John Grisham, Ford County

In this fascinating collection of short stories, Grisham shows his characteristic flare for interesting characters and situations, as well as his ability to turn a plot on a legal storyline. The seven stories in this collection demonstrate a nice variety of characters and plot, some having tinges of a more traditional Grisham legal thriller and some having no legal theme at all. They are all held together, though, by their setting in Ford County, Mississippi, which readers will recall from books like A Time to Kill, The Last Juror, and The Summons. In all, I greatly enjoyed these seven tales. For me they evoked the feeling of Flannery O'Connor's grotesque southern fiction, especially evident in Grisham's colorful characters and sometimes nearly ridiculous encounters, though they always stay true enough to life to stay in the realm of the plausible. A few of these stories could easily have been the seeds of full-length novels, but all stood well as short stories. Though a departure from his usual format, these stories may be some of his best writing yet.